Gores Group to Buy Johnson & Johnson Unit

The Gores Group on Monday said that it has agreed to acquire the maker of a medical device that’s used to treat blood cancer from a unit of New Jersey health care conglomerate Johnson & Johnson.

Therakos is a 25-year-old company based in Raritan, N.J and part of Johnson & Johnson’s Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics. Its technology treats a type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma by removing affected blood from a patient, treating it outside the body in a proprietary medical device, and returning it to the body in a process comparable to kidney dialysis. Therakos also has developed systems used for treating other immune diseases.

Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year. Gores has recruited Michael Rechtiene, who ran Therakos between 2003 and 2006, to return as chief executive of the company. Therakos is expected to remain in New Jersey.

Gores Group, the Westwood investment firm lead by billionaire financier Alec Gores, is better known for turning around and selling the unwanted units of large tech companies outside the medical sector. But its current portfolio does include Diagnostic Health Corp., a small Birmingham, Ala.-based chain of medical diagnostic imaging centers acquired in 2007.

“This is another vital step in our strategic thrust into the health care industry. Steven Yager, Gores Group senior managing director, said in a statement.